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Topic: Replacement racks for wine fridge (Read 3013 times)

I'm sure someone here has this figured out........where might I find replacement racks for my wine fridge? The wavy bottle racks it came with seriously waste some head room which I desperately need for some of my cheese endeavors and I'm running out of room. Google searches haven't yielded me success yet. ANy hints, leads or work arounds? I don't want to use wood slats and even metal slats might not provide the best solution....I don't to have to worry about slats coming apart while I'm moving cheeses around.

you might actually consider the use of wood...much discussion has taken place in the forums regarding the traditional use of spruce (not finished) to age cheese on. You would then be able to cut to the appropriate size...not sure how the connections would work, not looking at your fridge...

I don't think I'll do unfinished spruce. I'm still so new at all of this that I'm not sure if I want to learn about natural and mold enhanced rinds or what. If I bring wood in I'll probably do something wild like bring in wood from the surrounding forest and see what new flavors I can experience.

I've jerry-rigged racks for both my cheese cave wine coolers. For one of them I was able to remove alternate wine shelves and add baking racks on top of the remaining shelves. For the other, I had to completely remove the wine racks and use a combination of wooden slats (cut to size) and baking racks. If either are emptied I'm going to take the time to rebuild the racks entirely. There is no easy fix that I can think of. And there was a certain time pressure when I was kludging the shelves together that precluded doing the job well the first time.

I was thinking that I have some leftover strips of metal after a roofing job. They are strong and rigid because they are clamped to standing seam roofs to prevent snow avalanches. But they are spray painted and not sure how well I could clean them. I think I could cut them with a sawsall or hack saw even. It would take a while with the hack saw I think. I also need draining racks for just after the make while they are drying.....or for Brie when they are draining. Back to a cooking store maybe...... and what are the best boxes for cheese cave boxes? Any brand name recommendations? I know what you mean by the rush factor.....sigh.

I tried some of the 'egg crate' folks here suggested in aging boxes in mine -- have to get the fit right, but they seem pretty steady for cheeses under 3 lbs. Plus they're only 1/3" high so don't take up precious space and still allow air to circulate. I'll bring you a sample this week!

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Milking Nubian Goats in western MA and trying my hand at fresh and aged cheeses

Ah, Dirigo. You're the best! Maybe I should get some of that and then get some type of metal rod to use for supports. I also need more cheese matting. That stuff I got by the foot is too floppy and big holed. My brie is just oozing through it. Good for harder cheeses.....but no rigidity. See you Tuesday!

All I can say is be careful about using non-food rated items...including painted stuff. Occam's razor applies as does Murphy's law. Most often the simplest answer is the correct one, and if something can go wrong it will.

The matting I got was sold for cheese matting so I'm not worried about that but I'm thinking of following the lead of others and using some cross stitch plastic stuff from the craft aisle for more rigid matting. I asked about safety and no one had anything to say. I do tend to be very cautious about what touches my food as far as chemicals, plastics, etc.